LInux Wifi Driver For CK11?

[rzrnaz]

My brand new CK11 does not show a wifi connection in Linux, although it's there and works fine in Windows 11. My Linux flavor is Mint/Cinnamon, latest release.

Seems like a driver is missing. Are there Linux drivers available for the CK11?

[ccurley]

A driver or firmware.

What is the wifi device? Please use lspci to get exact information. Copy and paste that into your reply.

[barry777]

The wireless module used by CK11 is: Realtek 8852BE Wireless LAN WiFi6 PCI-E NIC; currently we only have the driver for Windows systems.

[ccurley]

The wireless module used by CK11 is: Realtek 8852BE Wireless LAN WiFi6 PCI-E NIC; currently we only have the driver for Windows systems.

Thank you, Barry. This sort of question comes up a lot with Linux, so you might save this for future queries. Non-Debian distributions (Red Hat, e.g.) would have a similar forensic path, but the package management tool is different.

Linux provides its own drivers, usually via the distribution. In this case, the distribution is https://www.linuxmint.com, so I would expect them to provide it. I believe Mint is based on Debian, so what I have here, Debian 12, will suffice to show what the OP needs to do.

In Debian 12, Realtek firmware is provided in two packages, firmware-realtek and firmware-realtek-rtl8723cs-bt. You can find out what each one does with, e.g.:

apt show firmware-realtek

To search for a specific device:

charles@hawk:~$ apt show firmware-realtek | grep -i 8852B

WARNING: apt does not have a stable CLI interface. Use with caution in scripts.

  * Realtek RTL8852BU Bluetooth config (rtl_bt/rtl8852bu_config.bin)
  * Realtek RTL8852BU Bluetooth firmware (rtl_bt/rtl8852bu_fw.bin)
  * Realtek RTL8852B firmware, version v0.27.32.1
    (rtw89/rtw8852b_fw.bin)
charles@hawk:~$ 

I don't see the BE variant in there, but that is worth a try. So:

apt install firmware-realtek

should install it. If you get a successful installation, reboot and try the network again.

By the way, I see Realtek devices on my T8+:

root@issola:~# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Device 4618
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Alder Lake-N [UHD Graphics]
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Device 54ed
00:14.2 RAM memory: Intel Corporation Device 54ef
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Device 54e0
00:17.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Device 54d3
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 54bb
00:1d.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 54b2
00:1d.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 54b3
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Device 5482
00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Device 54c8
00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Device 54a3
00:1f.5 Serial bus controller: Intel Corporation Device 54a4
01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 15)
02:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8821CE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 15)
root@issola:~# 

[rzrnaz]

Thanks to all for the responses. I followed ccurley's process and successfully got it to work.
Interestingly, installing the Linux drivers subsequently caused the Windows drivers to not work, and they had to re re-installed. I can't think of any way that's possible, but that's what happened.

Bottom line is all is good now, thanks again.